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We have become too tolerant of weak leadership
There’s something deeply insulting about ordinary people being told to manage their money better by the same people who repeatedly fail to manage oursThe Government says it wants less wealth tied up in property and more people investing for the long term.
Yet it protects a system that actively undermines that supposed goal. The two things that make Ireland expensive: Energy and housingThere is something deeply insulting about ordinary people being told to manage their money better by the same political system that repeatedly fails to manage ours. People are not failing to invest because they lack literacy. They are looking at a system that punishes patience, penalises long-term investing and then blames them for not participating enthusiastically.
An investor can be forced to sell simply to pay tax on gains that had never been realised. Property can rise in value for decades without triggering a tax bill.
Then the Government wonders why Irish wealth pours into property. And it speaks to a larger issue: a political culture where postponing difficult decisions has become an acceptable substitute for action. We have become too tolerant of weak leadership, endless reviews and Ministers hiding behind the language of “further consideration”. This continued delay is not caution.
It is a choice to protect a broken system because making a decision is harder than commissioning another review. We have normalised a political system that demands responsibility from ordinary people while avoiding responsibility itself. So, another review will be announced. Another roadmap will appear.
Another budget will pass. And the problems will remain. Patrick Bergin, co-star of Julia Roberts in Sleeping with the Enemy, seeks buyer for Offaly castleHow Katie Taylor revolutionised women’s sportLoneliness: There’s a reason why we use the term ‘power of connection’
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